So, in February or so, I reminded folks that it was time to grow sweet potato slips. You need an organic sweet potato to do this (non-organic ones are treated with growth inhibitors with lovely names such as maleic hydrazide so they don't sprout). You put the potato in a cup of water with half of it sticking out. In about a month or two, leafy shoots grow out of the sweet potato, complete with roots. You snap these off, you plant in late May/early June, and then in late August/early September (here in zone 8, which used to be zone 7B), you harvest.
My friend Stacey (who stewards one of the food pantry beds at the community garden as well) did this. She gave me some of her shoots and I planted them in my food pantry bed (along with Eugene's eggplants and my plot neighbor Nicole's tomatoes). I harvested them Sunday. Ten pounds.
Sweet potatoes are nutritional powerhouses. You can do lots of things with them (in addition to roasted whole and baked as chips or fries, I puree them and add them to pizza sauce and muffins), and one big one can feed a family. The really important part? They come at a time when the garden is in transition and there isn't as much to donate to those in need (about 70-140 families will show up tomorrow). Sweet potatoes come as a blessing. They come the weeks you need them most--right now.
The sad part? How to grow sweet potato slips used to be common knowledge. This knowledge has skipped not one, but two, generations*.
*And yes, for that reason, it's in my book. Page 25. (See two nice customer reviews on Amazon here.)
*And yes, for that reason, it's in my book. Page 25. (See two nice customer reviews on Amazon here.)
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4 comments:
I would love to grow sweet potatoes, but I am not entirely sure they could grow this far north (maine). Well, they probably could grow, as most everything surprisingly does up here, but it wouldn't be a very good yield. I might have to look into it though for next year! I love freshly grown sweet potatoes. They taste nothing like their grocery store counterparts...
Last year I had a very successful and productive sweet potato patch in my backyard garden. This year, after each of two plantings, the rabbits or some other critter managed to nip all the vines - I am sweet potato-less this year. Suggestions?
Heather: Not sure about it. Maybe with a little season extension hoops and covers, and some warming straw on the soil?
And Roy, here's my big tip of the day. If you plant crimson clover, the rabbits will eat that and only that. Add it here and there around your garden this fall and I expect you will see a big difference next year.
how timely! I dug up one of my sweet potato plants last week and we ate them roasted with dinner tonight. I didn't even bother with slips, since I always buy organic I just planted a couple of sprouting sweet potatoes out of my pantry and wha-la! I have sweet potatoes :)
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